Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd May 2022
One month after I had previously been in Scotland I was back for a two week holiday, though this was a difficult holiday for me to plan. I had a vague idea of wanting to go up mountains, but nothing specific and even when I did come up with a plan, inspired by my earliest walking holidays in Scotland, I still had difficulty with the availability of Youth Hostels on the first night. It wasn’t until just before Easter, which is relatively last minute for me, that I started looking elsewhere and discovered that the Stirling Youth Hostel had a bed available so that is where I caught a train to arriving mid-afternoon. I previously spent long weekends in Stirling in 2013 and 2017 and enjoyed my time there exploring the historic city and the surrounding scenery. Even though I was only spending a day in Stirling this time, I was still looking forward to returning, though the weather wasn’t great when I got there and climbed the craggy hill on which the old town sits to dump my rucksack in the Youth Hostel. Lightened of my load, I set off around the old walls through the woodland below the medieval castle and was soon happily reminded of my previous visits to Stirling. Leaving the walls of the castle, I made my way across Stirling Bridge where William Wallace defeated the English in 1297 and to Allen Craig upon whose top is the National Wallace Monument.
More of interest to me was the woodland behind the crags which were filled with wildflowers that in 2013 had included bluebells, but not in 2017 due to hot weather earlier in the month. Fortunately this time I was once again able to enjoy the bluebells that decorated the hillside along with many other wildflowers before I eventually reached the Wallace Monument at the top of the hill. Descending back down the hill, I made my way past Stirling University and along the main road to Bridge of Allan reversing my steps of my first day in Stirling in 2017. On that occasion I took the Darn Road from Dunblane that follows the Allan Water and initially I copied that enjoying the views up and down the river until I reached the deep gully of Cock’s Burn whose banks were covered with the sweet smelling white flowers of ramson, wild garlic. There I abandoned the Darn Road to follow Cock’s Burn through the ramsons up to Glen Road. After a while walking along the road I passed a barrier that closes the road to traffic as the terrain becomes more spectacular and I passed around the heavily wooded valley of Kippenrait Glen. Eventually the path crosses the Wharry Burn and as I started to make my descent into Dunblane the rain began to fall.
The following day the weather was no better so I decided not to copy my previous visits to Stirling when I had enjoyed the delights of the fabulously wooded and wildflower-rich glens that come off the Ochil Hills. Instead I made my way to the Battle of Bannockburn visitor centre, which I had never been to before and felt obliged to take the battle experience tour. Afterwards and with the weather seemingly improving, I set off on a walk that I had found via the University of Stirling Blog. The walk took me on a meandering route near the Bannock Burn before climbing through woodland on a steep, narrow path up to Sauchie Craig where the ridge undulated above steep cliffs to my right. This was an enjoyable walk which was helped by the open views south over Middlethird Wood and north towards the valley of the River Forth. Rain failed to dampen my enthusiasm as I made my way along the ridge turning south towards Lewis Hill and traversed several gaps including one that was negotiated by a well-engineered path zigzagging across the craggy terrain. At one point a clear sign indicated I should turn right, but the better, drier path went left and that was the way I went just as it started to rain heavily.
This path took me away from the edge of Sauchie Craig, but still led me all the way up to the top of Lewis Hill, which I arrived at just at the moment when the rain stopped and the sun came out. This afforded me with good views across North Third Reservoir below Sauchie Craig and along the length of the crags. A good path took me gradually down from the top of Lewis Hill to a road where I was soon able to walk up to the reservoir and follow the shore while the weather continued to improve and give me with good views across the water to the crags where I had just walked. After crossing the dam I headed back up the crags on a wide path crossing them through one of the gaps and plunging into the conifer plantation beyond I descended down to the Bannock Burn eventually returning to the Battle of Bannockburn visitor centre. This was a short walk as I had a long journey ahead of me to get to where my holiday really starts, though with most of the trains cancelled this was not going to be easy. I enjoyed the walk along the ridge above Sauchie Crags while the sunshine later in the day was a welcome surprise after the earlier rain.
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